Commencements Set for UT Health Science Center’s
Six Schools

Chaos theory and disease prevention are among the keynote commencement topics as the six schools of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston award degrees in the coming weeks.

School of Health Information Sciences

4 p.m., Thursday, May 4, Auditorium, School of Nursing and Student Community Center. Featured speaker will be James A. Yorke, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics and Physics, Institute for Physical Sciences and Technology, University of Maryland. Yorke is best known to the general public for coining the mathematical term “chaos,” and has co-authored three books on chaos theory. “Chaos” is a mathematical concept for systems that vary according to precise laws but appear to behave in random fashion.

School of Public Health

2 p.m., Friday, May 5, Edwin Hornberger Conference Center, 2151 W. Holcombe. Commencement speaker is Julie Gerberding, M.D., director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

School of Nursing

7 p.m., Friday, May 5, George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas. Principal speaker will be Maria Warda, Ph.D., dean of the School of Nursing at Georgia Southwestern State University.

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

10 a.m., Saturday, May 6, Edwin Hornberger Conference Center. Principal speaker will be Kenneth Shine, M.D., executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the UT System. He is chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s Scientific Advisory Committee and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security.

Dental Branch

6 p.m., Friday, May 19, Cullen Performance Hall, University of Houston campus. Speaker will be Stephen Schwartz, D.D.S., second vice president of the American Dental Association and a noted Houston endodontist. He also is a graduate of UT Dental Branch and a past president of the Greater Houston Dental Society and Texas Dental Association.

Medical School

10 a.m. Saturday, May 27, General Assembly Hall, George R. Brown Convention Center. Principal speaker will be Kenneth Shine, M.D., executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the UT System. Shine has decades of experience working with international health experts on global issues, such as emerging infectious illnesses, bioethics and access of care. A cardiologist and physiologist, he is a former president of the Institute of Medicine and founding director of the RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security.